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It’s Not You, It’s Me

City of Heroes is great as ever, and for those of you who like advancing one character rather than pursuing CoX’s altoholism, they have started adding alternative advancement. There is lots to do, and if you are an Achiever, the sky is the limit.

My problem is that I am an Explorer, and City of Heroes pre-dates World of Warcraft. “Been there, done that.” There are some things I have not tried, but the gameplay rarely differs all that much. It was good to come back after about a year off, but I do not have that drive to play. If my old group of friends were still there, I would enjoy the companionship amidst a familiar environment, but random people are insufficiently exciting even if I do remember some of them from back in the day. Maybe if the server were really hopping, and I could instantly get a group for anything, but that would likely mean lots of interest while I am in-game without the drive to log in.

But seriously, if you have not played, it is always a good time. Or to visit again. If you want one of those “15 days free with subscription/re-subscription” codes, I can have them send you one (or any current player can).

: Zubon

(Super)Men in Tights

Less than a week ago, I was forwarded a 10-day key for DCUO since I apparently mentioned that I’d not tried it. Having no new content in LoTRO to play with, I figured I’d give it a try. I posted about my first night’s comments, but I would be remiss if I did not post beyond that, because I feel it left an unfair sheen on the game, especially since no one else here has given it a review. I seem to be the beta/trial guinea pig. Maybe I should apply for hazard pay.

Anyway, I’ll get into my usual wordy, detailed review in a bit, but a quick summary for the skim readers: It’s a fun game. It’s the lovechild of World of Warcraft and City of Heroes. Actually, that’s not really true, but that’s a lie you can understand (/hattip Discworld). DCUO is faster paced than CoX, yet allows you to have the same type of fun that CoX does with being super. My main complaint is that it is a very fast burn – I hit max level on day 4 of my 10 day pass.

Continue reading (Super)Men in Tights

[BioWare] No Good Deed

EDIT: So BioWare it seems is pretty swift with making sure this is made right. They sent me a copy of the email, which I am not authorized to share, but it does break it down in a pretty “plain language” format. I still think they are a little bully-ish because it starts out with mention of the “binding legal contract,”  which can set the reader to defensive right away. But, the crux of the email is “we want to promote you guys!” The email even discusses the need to pay for server costs, etc. vs. the benefit of being promoted. Thanks to BioWare for the clarification.

Wait a minute. So BioWare contacts Star Wars: The Old Republic fan-sites, those that are exclusive to their game, and reminds them that if they are making money on their fan-site, then according to a two-year old click-through agreement, BioWare cannot promote the fan-site. And, this is controversial? Did I miss a takedown notice or Valentine’s day sacrifice of a goat force fed chocolates to death on BioWare’s steps?

To be fair (and given that I have not seen this offending email), it seems that BioWare’s intention to promote community backfired. It seems to me that BioWare wants to promote fan-sites, and are trying to remind the fan-sites that BioWare can only do so if the fan-site follows some reasonable terms. This of course blew up in their face, as most things do, when a simple request is inundated with legalese to a ridiculous degree. Of course they came off as bullies when using language that normal humans don’t speak. Even my wife [constantly] reminds me of that!

Lawyers should not be contacting fan-sites unless they intend to sue them. If all BioWare wanted to do was hope to promote more fan-sites a short, simple email from a community manager would have sufficed. Don’t fire the Death Star when a simple psychokinetic strangling will do the trick.

–Ravious
the first one’s free

Hat Tip: BioBreak

[GW2] Humans – Can You Hear the Thunder?

The most interesting part, in my mind, of the Guild Wars 2 human week was not what was told. That is not to say I wasn’t incredibly impressed with the setup and delivery. It’s just that if I were to choose a human as my main character, I might want to look at what they aren’t saying… Where the focus wasn’t.

For good reason, Guild Wars 2 is narrowing the scope of the world back to the continent of Tyria where the first Guild Wars, Prophecies, took place. There are five playable races, of which all but two are believed to be native to the Tyrian continent. The charr and the sylvari are definitely native. Asura came from beneath the Tyrian continent, and have never spoken of being in other places in the world. Finally, the norn’s origins are unknown, but their are theories they might be half-human anyway (given that they… might be the same species in the most copulatory sense). This leaves the most decidedly non-native humans.

Continue reading [GW2] Humans – Can You Hear the Thunder?

Fun-damentally Flawed

You know it’s going to be a bad PvP match when you see all the opposing players have the same guild tag over their head. Many guilds, mine included, enjoy group PvP, yet very few games support it natively. Group PvP is fun in that you have now taken the game to a completely different strategic level, on top of whatever landscape/npc/event challenges the developers have built into the zone/event/area. I’ve been in one or two truly epic guild vs guild battles.

I know as a pick-up PvP player, getting repeatedly beat into the ground is not fun. I don’t mean because I need to “learn2pvp carebear”, but because the other team is well versed in each other’s strategies, abilities, and works well as a team while I am trying to figure out if my teammates can find the attack button. At least, I would hope that the other team is not enjoying it. Bullying usually stops being fun around third grade.

Elsewhere in Patch Notes

City of Heroes has made it this far with very few raids (Hamidon, Cathedral of Pain, Rikti mothership). They are adding another, the Behavioral Modification Facility, as part of the Incarnate alternate advancement system. This is currently under testing along with actual raid groups (“leagues”). Really old school raiders might be familiar with games where raids are just fights in which multiple groups are participating, with any link between the groups, raid UI, etc. City of Heroes has been run that way; everyone in the zone goes after the Hamidon. The next big update will have official raid mechanics as well as an event queuing system.

Of course, normal City of Heroes groups are eight characters, while other games have ten-character raids, so we are talking about really big fights here.

: Zubon

[GW] A Whirling Change

The Nightfall professions in Guild Wars always felt the most separated from the core professions. There were definitely times were the paragons and dervishes were some of the most powerful entities on the battlefield, but they always felt like some mirror-world offspring of the core warrior profession. Well ArenaNet has been working hard on two huge updates, and last night the valiant leader of the Guild Wars Live Team posted a huge preview for the dervish changes. The goal of the dervish update was to give it’s style of play more meaning and to cultivate the essence of a dervish, rather than having an enchantment heavy warrior.

Continue reading [GW] A Whirling Change

Sweet Mother of Patch Notes!

Lord of the Rings, on test. Notables:

  • The radiance system has been removed from the game.
  • 3 class updates
  • Legendary Item update, including reducing relic tiers, making all IXP runes work on all LIs, and having deconstructed LIs yield legacy scrolls so that you can combine across LIs to build the one you really want.
  • Moria epic chain update for a post-Moria world (not the official title)
  • Volume III, Book 3
  • 5 new instances, 1 new raid

: Zubon

[GW2] NCSoft 4Q Conference Call and Release Date Speculation

In the midst of the Guild Wars 2 human week, many fans are experiencing some other very real human emotions. Thanks to GigaShadow, the contents of the NCSoft 4Q 2010 Conference Call have been picked for any Guild Wars 2 information. It seems that Guild Wars 2 (and Blade and Soul) are objectively set to finish development by the end of 2011. However, NCSoft is ready to put both games at a later launch to make sure they are able to fully react to the very subjective open and closed beta feedback.

This is not to say that a 2011 release for Guild Wars 2 (and Blade and Soul) will not happen because NCSoft says they have scenarios already planned for such a release. However, they warn shareholders that 2011 revenue might not be impacted by the games. This, of course, explains why ArenaNet has refused to say Guild Wars 2 will launch in 2011 because they aren’t even 100% sure.

I think this is bittersweet. Of course I want Guild Wars 2 now now now, but I also want it to be a mindblowing game. In a recent Rift interview, Trion Worlds said that the game is on such a stable base that the devs are actually able to work on requested game improvements that are received through beta feedback rather than trying to plow through work that should have been done before beta. I hope that this is where Guild Wars 2 will be when they start the beta process.

–Ravious

The Eyes Have It

Last night a friend sent me a 10-day pass to DCUO so I downloaded and played it briefly this morning. After what seemed like a 15 minute introduction movie, and several other movies, I struggled through the character creation process. I found it to be somewhat unforgiving. When it came to the selection of custom powers/uniform or copy a DC character, I clicked Luthor out of randomness, then the others. For some reason, DCUO really wanted me to be Luthor, as my “Superman” model was still green and purple and bald. It took about 10 minutes to undo the changes, and then the first item I looted overwrote what I was wearing. Lego Universe has this same thing, which is very annoying. Why even give me the option to select custom boots, gloves, chest, etc, if it will be overwritten by any gear I wear? In any case, I made it through the very long intro (which did a good job of explaining the controls), and found I really hated the permanent mouselook model it apparently is on. If there’s a way to turn this off, it’s not in the Control menu, so please let me know.

I just barely made it out of the intro scenes when I had to log out, but one thing stuck with me, probably because it was constantly on the screen – why does Luthor’s “bad eye” keep switching? In the “current time” he has a lens covering an injured right eye, and in the “bleak future” he has no left eye at all, and a healthy right eye. Art error?

Also, I found it slighty humorous that DCUO’s entire story is based on the “time traveler trying to prevent apocalyptic future” story theme, which of course is the basis for the Defiant faction in Rift (and any number of sci-fi stories).